


superhero pending

by Lila17



Category: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
Genre: (identity reveal endgame anyway), Angst, Court Drama, Gen, I don't know what to tag this but that's mood, Identity Reveal, Legal Drama, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Secret Identity, outside pov, short chapters but I update on thursdays, sorta - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-21
Updated: 2019-05-10
Packaged: 2019-09-24 00:06:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 8,915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17090309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lila17/pseuds/Lila17
Summary: Slowly, Miles Morales learns how to step into the role of Spider-Man (what happens before and after a fight, not just during), and slowly, the rest of New York learns to adjust to him.





	1. Chapter 1

The thing is that no matter what, Jefferson Davis was always one of the more straight-laced cops.

Just like how other cops apparently ran red lights sometimes (which he never did), by the year of all the upheaval with Spider-Man, Jefferson was one of the last cops who still actually disapproved of him. Everyone in the PDNY would have to answer as such if questioned by the media, since it was the official stance the organization pushed, but the truth was that for most people Spider-Man had just become a part of New York like anything else. To imagine the city _without_ him was ludicrous. And besides- as many of his friends had privately confessed, they wouldn’t care to actually go up against the villains that Spider-Man faced themselves.

But no, not Jefferson. He was always strictly by the book- the law was the law, and no one should be allowed to take it into their own hands. It was the principle of the thing- if Spider-Man wanted to help people, he should have done it the normal way, with no mask and full accountability. He maintained that stance for years, even after most people stopped agreeing.

And then, well...the unthinkable happened. Spider-Man died.

Thinking about it in retrospect, Jefferson is almost ashamed but willing to admit that he came to rely on Spider-Man as much as anyone else. Just as he would always complain about Spider-Man at any opportunity, he always assumed that there would _be_ a Spider-Man to complain about. Casually swinging around the city, appearing in a news story, singing his stupid Christmas songs on the radio in December, and showing up to save the day before zipping off into the sunset.

And suddenly, in the middle of the media fallout of Spider-Man’s death, with people’s tributes of how he saved their lives flooding social media and the face of this 26-year-old blond kid being projected on every screen everywhere, he can’t quite...keep the conviction going as strong as it used to.

To be honest? No one can. 

The first time he walked into the police station after the news broke, he could see people watching him as if they still expected him to attack Spider-Man even after the kid was  _ dead _ \- and well maybe he disliked Spider-Man, but no, never enough to do something like that. The police department released no statement commenting on Spider-Man’s death at all, because legally, they can’t support a technical criminal. The absence of disapproval is all the acknowledgement they  _ could _ give.

And then, after days of frantic meetings and discussions of  _ what they’re going to do now _ , how is the PDNY going to throw together a force capable of taking on, god forbid, the Green Goblin or something in the place of Spider-Man- after the quiet opening of the legally-mandated investigation into the death of one Peter Parker- then. Then, the new Spider-Man.

The entire day that he first appeared is still a blur. Spider-Man still hadn’t left New York’s collective system, seeing as nine out of every ten news articles were about him and people kept calling in to tearfully report Spider-Man sightings, when a whole new “earthquake” started happening. And Jefferson didn’t live in a Spider-Man-protected New York for ten years for nothing- someone was obviously causing it. 

The PDNY had managed to come to about zero consensus on what to do in the day since Spider-Man died, but someone had to do  _ something _ , so he’d run down there himself and been faced with a swirling mass of colors and buildings. And then, someone in the middle of all of it- in an unmistakable suit, no matter the colors.

For about ten minutes of the almost depressingly small Spider-Man fighting- fighting- is that  _ Wilson Fisk _ ?- Jefferson is utterly useless. He doesn’t know where this new person came from and he doesn’t even know for sure that it’s not just a random powerless kid in a costume until Jefferson sees him shoot out some- electricity? And the fight is doubly terrifying because Jefferson can’t even begin to do something, and there’s a whole half minute where the person gets knocked down and doesn’t get back up and he starts thinking that maybe he’s witnessing the death of a whole new Spider-Man, right now.

And if he gets caught up in it and tries to shout encouragement that they probably won’t even hear in the moment, well, no one needs to know that.

The explosion and the revelation that it  _ was  _ Fisk afterward is in itself a thing and a half, combined with the new Spider-Man (who up close is very obviously a teenager) coming out of nowhere to hug him and speak in a fake-sounding accent and tell Jefferson that he loves him, and that’s...well, that’s something to figure out. Dozens of people flood the streets in a way that’s  _ totally unsafe _ because they’ve heard about the new Spider-Man, and for a moment Jefferson can understand what the others must have seen when they looked at the old one; someone brave and willing to put their life on the line to help people with the powers they were given. 

Jefferson looks at the new Spider-Man and hopes for the city’s sake that he knows what he’s doing.

———-

#NewSpidey is number one trending on Twitter. Miles Morales has inadvertently sort of gone viral, and he has absolutely no one to tell about it.

Obviously, he can talk about Spider-Man  _ in general  _ to anyone. But there are about 8.6 million people in New York who know Spider-Man generally instead of personally, and Miles is...not one of them anymore? 

To be honest, it’s not like his whole life has changed immediately and dramatically or anything. He’s not having wild boss battles every day a la Fisk- things are much calmer than that. According to May, villains seem to work in cycles? So he’ll have at least a week or something of relative peace before another absolute catastrophe starts happening, which is great, because Miles really needs that time to do all the first-week homework he kinda missed.

And also, to get used to having people start cheering every time he goes around as Spider-Man. And to figure out how to work through the fact that on the day of the Fisk fight, he was riding high on adrenaline and pure motivational confidence and managed to pull it off, but gaining the skill and experience the others had was going to take a while. A while while. 

Miles has already gotten more guidance on how to be Spider-Man than most spider-people probably  _ ever _ get, but there’s still a lot of stuff he’s having to figure out on his own. Honestly?

There’s so much stuff that Miles doesn’t know that he’s starting to wonder if he should make a list.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi y’all, this may feel like a random 300 words of hot garbage when this is actually supposed to end up a Cool Multichapter Fic, but I made an agreement with my sister that we would post SOMETHING for our spider-verse fic ideas by today even if it felt bad, so I guess I’m #winning.
> 
> This is going to be a multi-chapter fic, alternating between Jefferson’s and Miles’ POVs as Jefferson gets used to Spider-Man and Miles gets used to _being_ Spider-Man. Identity reveal is endgame, because no one’s written any dramatic identity reveal in this fandom yet, babey 
> 
> huge thanks for reading, bye
> 
> EDIT: Okay, obviously I finished writing this first bit so it’s no longer 300 words and no longer as hot-garbagey. On to the next chapter!!


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _IMPORTANT:_ if you first read this fic back when it only had one chapter, you might have only read the first like 300 words that I posted and not the stuff I added on later to finish the chapter. If you’re not sure, check just in case.

1) What are the web shooters made out of? What happens if they like, break during a fight?

~~2) How should he try to~~  

2) Should he try to disguise his voice for  _ everyone  _ he talks to as Spider-Man?

3) Should he be avoiding reporters? He’s kind of been doing that already because he doesn’t know how to talk to them anyway, but is that...good?

4) If a reporter asks about the old Spider-Man, what should he say?

5) Should he tell someone (someone besides May or Mary Jane) that he knows how the old Spider-Man died?

~~6) _Should_ he try to~~ 

6) Is he supposed to have organized Spider-Man patrol times? Gwen mentioned patrolling once but...

7) Was it rude to go to May for the suit and web shooters without first apologizing for kind of destroying her house?

8) Should Miles try to help her fix her house?

9) How exactly do the web shooters work, and why do they last so long despite being so small? He doesn’t know and at this point he’s afraid to ask.

10) What should Miles do if he doesn’t have that much money and also doesn’t know how to fix houses?

~~11) Does it even really matter if~~

11) Was alternate universe Peter’s advice about the baby powder serious?

12) How often should he wash the suit?

13)  _ Where  _ should he wash the suit? 

14) Do people expect him to be just as good as the old Spider-Man right off the bat?

15) What should he say if someone catches him having a nightmare about...stuff?

16) Should he start preparing excuses for things now in case he ever needs them?

~~ 17) Should he try ~~

~~ 17) Should he ask first whether or not ~~

~~ 17) Yeah, does it even  _ really  _ matter if ~~

17) Should he try to change his dad’s opinion on Spider-Man?

—————————

“It’s not that you’re cold or anything like that,” Cole says lowly. “It’s just that for some other officers, well- Spider-Man meant a lot to them. They wouldn’t be able to stay detached.”

Jefferson nods. “I understand.”

He’s not judging anyone else- he genuinely gets it. He’d seen the massive wave of tributes and memorials that swept the city after Peter Parker’s death, and he doesn’t go on social media himself but the #BeforeSpiderManDiedHe tag apparently grew so large online that newspapers started reporting on it.

( _ #BeforeSpiderManDiedHe saved my uncle, #BeforeSpiderManDiedHe saved my friend, #BeforeSpiderManDiedHe rescued my child- _ )

Jefferson’s not heartless, and he genuinely gets it. He just isn’t a fan. “How much do they know so far?” He asks, and Cole winces.

“Well, you’ll have to ask the main detective on that, but so far, not much.” He shakes his head. “Everyone knows the big villains who had it out for Spider-Man, but no one can prove anything. There’s just too much we don’t know- and not to mention the fact that the only good people who  _ do  _ know technically count as accomplices to the whole vigilante thing.”

“Right,” Jefferson says. 

It’s honestly been...a hell of a week for him. Just last month, he would have  _ loved  _ to be able to take anyone related to Spider-Man to task. Now, it would be completely insensitive, without even getting into anything else.

Plus. Plus, if they even tried to prosecute May  _ or _ Mary Jane Parker, half the city would riot. Caring about what civilians think isn’t even close to standard, but nothing about this situation- Spider-Man dead, his identity revealed, a new Spider-Man swooping in and all of Jefferson’s opinions being turned on their heads- really is.

Cole claps him on the back. “Well, anyway. Good luck with figuring out who killed New York’s first superhero,” he says, trying for light-hearted and slightly failing.

“Right,” Jefferson says again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m thinking that I want to update every Thursday.
> 
> Also, in the next few chapters there’s going to be some maybe dubiously accurate stuff about law and investigations, because I Do Not Know How Police Investigations Work. Most people probably won’t care and will just shrug and say “I don’t know how they work either, this sounds legit”, but I know a lot about gymnastics and tumbling and a lot of times in media I see stuff that should be impossible and I’m like [incredulous hissing cat noise]. So if that’s YOU for police investigations, feel very free to come tell me about how it actually should be.
> 
> I’m like 90% certain there was a third thing I was supposed to put here but I don’t remember it. Thanks for reading!


	3. Chapter 3

“This is quite possibly the only case  _ any  _ of us is ever going to see where we have this problem.”

Jefferson sighs. He’s been doing that a lot lately. “How many people have tried to claim credit now?”

The detective assigned to this case, a woman named Joyce, sorts through some papers on her desk. “As of this morning, seventeen. Which means that either at least sixteen of them are lying, or multiple criminals teamed up to kill Spider-Man- which we can’t rule out, to be honest.”

“Hmm.” Jefferson pauses. “And nothing from Fisk?”

Joyce’s eyes flick up to look at him for a second, expression grim. “And absolutely nothing from Fisk.”

The thing is: of  _ course  _ everyone suspects Fisk. Spider-Man dies on the night that a strange earthquake happens, and a week later it’s revealed that Fisk was the one causing the earthquakes as he is taken down by a new Spider-Man. It’s like cause and effect- it’s only natural that people would connect those dots.

Except that currently, Fisk is denying anything to do with the former Spider-Man with the help of the best lawyers that money can buy, and also, 17 separate people have claimed to be the cause of Spider-Man’s death. So. In the absence of any clear evidence that Fisk was the one who did it, they have to investigate every claim with equal seriousness.

...yes, all of them. Even the one made in a YouTube video by two (very clearly drunk) college-age kids who were probably horrified to learn what they’d posted the next day.

Joyce leans back in her chair. “Honestly, we can follow up on claims all we want, but we’re still not going to get anywhere unless we accidentally get very lucky. Even if we can verify that a claim was made by someone who actually had the ability to kill him, it would be incredibly difficult to try to just arrest them. The only person with experience for fighting super-criminals of that caliber is…”

“Spider-Man,” Jefferson finishes. They’re both silent for a few moments. 

“Honestly, speaking of that, what’s your opinion on the new Spider-Man?” Joyce says.

Jefferson grimaces a little while she’s not looking, because that- now that is a can of worms. “Well, obviously he’s still a vigilante, so that comes first. But, as kids go…” he shrugs, hesitating slightly.

“He’s alright, I guess.”

———————-

Inexplicably, he wakes up in the middle of the night and deletes the video.

There’s that period sometimes, between sleep and waking, where you think and do weird things that make sense at the time. 3 AM Miles apparently woke up from a dead sleep thinking that the video he took of the first Spider-Man swinging around the super collider was public enemy number one, grabbed his phone, deleted it, and then immediately passed out again.

Smash cut to Miles now, in the morning, trying to figure out why he did that. He guesses it’s fair enough, really. He has no idea how he would be able to explain how he got the video if someone else saw it.

Truthfully, he’s gone through multiple cycles of “pssh, no one’s going to find out my identity” and “oh my god everyone’s going to find out my identity and then I’ll die physically” at this point. He tried for all of ten minutes to go ask Peter’s aunt about it, about exactly how much precaution he should be taking, but once he got there he realized that Mary Jane Parker herself was there for some reason and that was too much to deal with.

(He knows they’re probably going to have to talk at some point, but between school and other Spider-Man things, it’s very low on the list of priorities. Which he should know. Because he actually made the list.)

(Oh god, should he delete the list off his phone too-?)

He's kind of in a weird, complicated situation because if he’d just randomly become Spider-Man, he probably would have found a way to just figure all of this out on his own. But because he has the  _ option _ of talking to people who are experienced with this, he feels the need to check constantly. Like “hey, is this the exact correct way to Spider-Man, or-“

It’s because he’s still in the first couple weeks of this, he supposes. Just like back when he was first learning to spray paint and would watch YouTube tutorials over and over every time he was unsure of himself.

He’ll figure it out sometime.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi. this is very short and I am very aware. However, in the true pioneering spirit that drove me to post the unfinished first chapter of this way back even when I thought it was terrible, I’ve decided that update-day Thursday also means “post whatever shit you have even if it’s not done” Thursday. To be honest, if any new chapter that comes out feels too short, it’s probably not finished and I will be adding on to it later. In the meantime, happy new year!!!!
> 
> Also, disclaimer that I once again don’t totally know how police investigations work. thank you
> 
> //yeet, now with Miles POV 
> 
> I’m really sorry about my wacky updating style, but honestly my time is currently on a four way split between college applications, school, writing, and Academic Decathlon (which believe me, is much more time consuming for me than school). Thanks for reading!! I’ll try to keep writing very hard!!


	4. Chapter 4

But see, here’s kind of the thing: maybe Miles is ready to start figuring this out and move on, but the rest of New York isn’t.

And he can’t say that he doesn’t get it. The original Peter Parker Spider-Man was around for ten years, most of which Miles was a super little kid for, so it makes sense that other people have some really strong memories and feelings for him. They don’t want to forget about him, and Miles genuinely gets it.

But he kind of doesn’t  _ want _ to remember.

“Jeez, what is the police force even doing? No leads- none?” a girl says in the hallway between classes and Miles winces. He wants to walk away, but she’s in the same class as him next period and has the same route, and he doesn’t trust himself to not be late if he takes a detour.

“I know!” the boy she’s talking to exclaims back. “It’s been two weeks. You would have thought they’d find  _ something _ .”

For one thing, police investigations take time and they can’t be expected to release every bit of info they find to the press immediately.

But for another thing- Miles absently drums his fingers on his pant leg, trying to let out his anxiety. He actually thought they’d have found something by now too.

He hasn’t told anyone how the old Peter died yet, except for Peter's aunt May because she deserved that. Old alternate dimension Peter knows that Miles  _ met  _ his universe’s Peter and was around when he died, and that he seemingly had a reason to give Miles the override key, but he doesn’t know anything else. And then, obviously the rest of the spider-people know none.

So- so yeah. So no one else knows that Miles saw him die.

“But it’s not like any of the people who have fought Spider-Man before- the ones that aren’t in jail, that is- are people you can just go take in for questioning,” the boy is pointing out. “Fisk’s probably not confessing to anything he doesn’t have to, and if they can’t prove it was him then they’re at a stalemate.”

And he keeps thinking about it, every day that no one in the city or the police force or the news seems to know how the original Spider-Man died. What if he’s genuinely the only person who knows?

The girl and the boy start arguing about Fisk specifically, and Miles grabs for his earphones even though listening to music isn’t allowed in the hallways. Because they start talking about Fisk and then Miles is thinking about the  _ sound _ , about Fisk slamming his fists down, and he didn’t even know that Peter very well but but he was a spider-person and maybe Miles  _ could  _ have, if. If he hadn’t died.

He puts in his earphones and starts blasting something, and tries to push away the thoughts. He has no idea what he’s going to do if the police legitimately can’t figure out how who killed Peter Parker. Because yeah, even though those first few days were some of the most incredible of his life, there’s some stuff he’d really, really, rather not remember.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realize that I didn't update last week and I offer 50% of an apology. 50% because I was absolutely swamped with everything and KNEW that I wouldn't be able to write, but there's no real way to make announcements on ao3. 
> 
> Upside is: as of the 15th, I'm now done with my college apps!! So I have way more time to write!! Just in time too, because this chapter is really the first one that starts jumping into some plotty things. I almost didn't write this, but I made a promise to someone in the comments, and I was going to keep it.
> 
> Definitely check back on chapter 3 if you're not sure if I updated it after first posting it, but for this chapter I think I'm just going to let it be and start writing for the next chapter. Peace!!


	5. Chapter 5

Jefferson sighs. They’re officially out of leads.

They found the body in a place that was very clearly not where he had actually died, for one, which always made things more difficult. And there was also the fact that there were just too many people who had it out for Spider-Man to be able to track them all down.

And as for Fisk, the fact that the majority of what he did that was illegal happened deep underground in a space built by his own company means that...there’s not many opportunities for evidence to turn up. There’s no passerby, no random witnesses, and all of the cameras were _conveniently_ destroyed in the blast.

They have to face it. They’re at a dead end. They’ve already put out notices urging people to come forward if they have any information to offer, but no one has. Not even anyone from the Parker family- the police force and them have a kind of uneasy truce going on, but he’s sure that if they actually had evidence they would have already produced it. Maybe Spider-Man never had any legally-defensible dirt on Fisk either.

And the autopsy results are no help, either. Nothing fancy or distinctive, just a ton of blunt force trauma to the chest. 

Right now, he’s looking through the records on one of the claimers (which have risen in number to twenty six), trying to figure out whether that person would have actually had the means to pull it off. At the same time, he’s wracking his brains trying to think of any people in New York who could possibly know something.

And then almost on accident, he trips over a memory. Miles, asking him about Spider-Man, a full ten minutes before his death was announced on the news.

A prick of unease surfaces.

Neither of them had thought much of it at the time. Jefferson had briefly connected the dots in the moment, wondering if Miles had known something beforehand, but dismissed it as just him probably hearing something through social media. But news agencies acted fast, and there was no reason for Miles to have heard of it so quickly and been so upset by it that he ran to their house.

And he definitely ran- Jefferson had felt him panting slightly when they hugged. He’d ran.

He had dismissed all of it before, but between _knew something way too fast_ , _was upset_ , _didn’t tell us why_ , and _was running right before we talked_ , it all adds up to a picture would be...absolutely insane.

Jefferson leans back in his chair and blows out a big breath. Out of all of the people in New York, it’s possible that _Miles_ might have seen something.

He’ll ask Miles about it tomorrow, on the weekend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m late, but I guess the point is that...no matter how many times I get hit and post late, I always post eventually?
> 
> Also, in random news, the first time I watched Into the Spider-Verse, I came home and there was a spider in my room. My sister called me a coward for not letting it bite me, and then it crawled behind a stack of books and I haven’t seen it since. I wonder about that funky little dude sometimes


	6. Chapter 6

Miles actually kind of wonders what other people see when they look at Spider-Man.

And well, Miles knows what people see when they look at _a_ Spider-Man, because he has years of personal experience on that one. But he wonders if people feel the exact same way for _his_ Spider-Man yet. Do they look at Spider-Man and think he’s strong, unbeatable, that he has it all under control? That he’s the kind of guy who makes a ton of jokes because he’s just _that_ unafraid?

Well, they probably don’t think that Spider-Man is the kind of guy who could be having a stress breakdown in a bathroom stall because he saw two people die in two days.

(Maybe three, if you count Doc Ock. Miles saw her get hit by the truck, but no one actually found a body. Which either means that she escaped and Miles will have to fight her again, or she fell into the collider-portal, which could really mean anything.)

(He still saw her get hit, even if it could mean anything.)

And it’s like- Miles has been Spider-Man for about three weeks now and he already loves it. And sometimes he thinks, you know, what _isn’t_ to love about being Spider-Man? It’s fantastic, he’s helping people, and swinging around buildings is one hell of an adrenaline rush. What is he so hung up about?

And then he remembers Uncle Aaron and Peter. And partially, that one moment in the Fisk fight when he legitimately thought that he was going to lose and Fisk was going to kill him.

And then it’s like _oh. right._

Miles should probably delete the list, but he can’t bring himself to. He’s not one of those kids who keeps a diary, and at this point he’s actually kind of stalling on going back to talk to Mrs. Parker again, so it’s the only place where any of this stuff is coming out. He at least did the next best thing in terms of secretiveness and made a new Google account with an actually strong password and then put the list in there, instead of just out in the open, so.

It’s really branched off from questions, now. Now there’s thrilling, over-detailed rhetorical stuff like:

75\. Should he have actually followed the older Peter into the Alchemax building? If Peter had been on his own, he probably would have been in and out just fine without making any big noise that would have brought Doc Ock into the room at all. It’s just that when he saw Fisk he- panicked, and he thought about the _sound_ and he thought that ifwhen Fisk did it again, he’d somehow hear it all the way through the building. And then Fisk would say _Get rid of the body_ again, and Miles would hear that, or even worse, he wouldn’t, and- he panicked.

76\. Should he still have followed Peter though? ugh- whatever, it doesn’t matter, it all worked out really anyway

77\. He saw Gwen touching her new haircut at least twice in a pleased sort of way, so she must not _totally_ hate it. Is she having a hard time explaining it to her parents, though?

78\. He really wants to talk to the other Spiders again-

79\. Is calling Spider-People just “Spiders” cringey?

80\. He really wants to talk to the other Spiders again. Out of all of them, Peni seems like the only person who would have any kind of shot at creating (safe) technology for communicating or traveling between dimensions. Is it wishful thinking to think she could or even would, though? Would it even be responsible to try for it, considering the kinds of disasters that happened with it in the first place?

81\. Should he be telling all of this to Mrs. Parker in an attempt to cope with trauma in a healthy way or something? (lol haha finger guns coping with humor bye)

82\. the two things out of three that really mess miles up about being spider-man are the way that uncle aaron died, and the way that his universe’s peter died, but when fisk first wanted to kill peter he signaled for someone else to do it and the prowler stepped forward without a second thought, uncle aaron would have killed peter himself without a second thought, and miles doesn’t know what he’s supposed to do with that.  
—-  
The passing period bell rings, jerking him out of his thoughts. He’s late for class now. Great.

He stands up and rearranges his stuff before pushing out of the stall (because he didn’t actually walk in here to go to the bathroom or anything, he just wanted to have a mini breakdown, thanks). He’s probably going to walk out right into someone’s Spider-Man conversation, because it’s all anyone’s really talking about right now. 

Maybe he should set a time limit for when he should try to come forward on what he knows by, if the police haven’t made any advancements by then. It’s not like he’s the only person in New York who cares about Peter Parker- his classmates’ worried conversations are proof of that.

Even though as evidence goes, he doesn’t actually have that much. He knows what he saw, obviously, but technically that’s just hearsay. And if he came forward, who would he say it as- Miles Morales or Spider-Man? Would either one make him seem more or less credible?

Maybe if he still had that tiny video he took, he would have something to throw around. But that’s a moot point. Miles pauses right then with his hand on the doorknob to his class- today’s Friday, tomorrow’s the weekend. 

He sighs quietly. He’ll figure it out soon.

————-

Miles looks tired.

Not in an about-to-pass-out kind of way, but just a general tired air between all the jokes and conversations, kind of way. The school must be working him hard- Jefferson almost feels bad for springing this Spider-Man stuff on him out of nowhere.

Still, they have a good evening. Miles is back, it finally being Friday, so they all rapidly fill each other in on how their respective weeks went. Jefferson is genuinely glad for how well Miles seems to be adjusting to the school, despite everything. He keeps watching for an opening to bring up _that_ night, but there never is one.

Until, while they’re eating dinner, Rio does it for him.

“So, has anything new come up with the Spider-Man case?” 

It’s become something of a common question for him over the past week or so, but this time he automatically goes to watch someone else’s reaction. And Miles does react. He doesn’t really jump or anything like that, he just tenses- as if it the topic means something to him, but he was used to it by now.

“Not really,” Jefferson says honestly. His suspicion about Miles is the biggest event to happen lately, and it’s still as-of-yet unofficial. “We’re a little scrabbling for leads at this point, because we don’t have much evidence and no one’s come forward.” At that, Miles freezes for a fraction of a second. Then he almost forces himself to continue eating.

If Jefferson is honest with himself, he looks like a kid who knows something.

A burst of almost hurt flares up. Forget the investigation- why didn’t Miles tell them anything about this? He remembers opening the door to Miles’ room and seeing Miles standing there, looking like he was about to cry. He remembers Miles running across the room to hug him, proof that no matter how rocky their relationship got, Miles could still come to him as a source of comfort. And then, after all that, he seemingly quietly made the decision to not tell either of them...what happened.

Jefferson firmly reminds himself to not take it personally. Obviously he can’t just let it go, but almost anything that he can guess at what Miles witnessed would have been upsetting. It’s not necessarily strange for him to keep it to himself.

After five more minutes of quiet conversation (and after, also, five minutes in which it seems that Miles has finished eating) he decides that if anything’s going to get done around here, he’s going to have to go ahead and do it himself.

“Miles? Can I talk to you for a second?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hhh, and I literally promised someone on chapter 5 that this chapter would be GUARANTEED to be posted on time. Lowkey, I was just planning to post the first Miles scene as the new chapter, because I had it done already (hence guaranteed) but then like 15 people commented stuff like “shit is going to go DOWN in the next chapter” on chapter 5 and I got nervous because Shit Does Not Really Go Down In The Miles Scene.
> 
> ...shit doesn’t really go down in the extended Jefferson scene, either. hhh. In regards to the Miles scene, tho: 
> 
> Me, last chapter, replying to comments: i should give miles some happy times  
> Me, writing this chapter: I think NOT
> 
> I’m reading other fics where people are lightly sprinkling in their angst like goddamn normal people, and I’m just out here flooring it every single chapter
> 
> DO NOT WORRY THOUGH, he is going to get some Help and Support and Things eventuallyprettysoonfast. It’s just that angst is easy, and recovery is complicated and stuff
> 
> I will post on Thursday, but in the interest of not raising anyone’s expectations, I decline to specify which Thursday. Peace out, thanks for reading!!!


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is dedicated to guest reader Stacey, who happened to be the most recent person to comment on this fic as I was posting this

“Miles? Can I talk to you for a second?”

 

Miles nods and agrees casually, looking like he has no real reason to think this is something serious. Rio shoots him a questioning glance, and Jefferson motions that he’ll explain later.

 

They go into the other room, and Miles looks confused for a second when Jefferson opts to sit down on the couch for the conversation, then there’s a moment of dawning realization about how long this might be. There’s a second of awkward silence, where Jefferson is fairly sure his own tension is leaking into the room.

 

“So, what did you want to talk to me about?” Miles says finally.

 

Jefferson takes a breath and deliberates on how he wants to start this for a couple seconds, before just blurting the first thing he can think of, which is, “I’m worried about you.”

 

Miles, who had been drumming his fingers on the couch, stops dead. “Uh. Worried about what, specifically?”

 

Jefferson pauses. No going back now, reminds himself. “You know about how the police are investigating Peter Parker’s death, right?” He says, trying to ease into it. Miles goes even stiller, if that’s possible.

 

“Yeah,” he says slowly.

 

The two of them make eye contact for a few seconds before Miles leans back on the couch and sighs. “Yeah. And how does that, um-“ Miles attempts to both laugh and cough at the same time before aborting both, “relate to me?” he finishes, with a forced air of casualness.

 

Jefferson doesn’t say anything for a moment. Honestly, he’s been struggling to communicate with Miles for years now but this conversation right now takes the cake. “It’s just that,” he starts slowly, “You were so upset the night that he was killed, and you’ve been acting a little strange over the past couple of weeks whenever someone brings him up. And for the investigation, we really need people who might know anything about what happened-“ Jefferson cuts himself off, wincing internally. Is that guilt-tripping? He just wants Miles to open up to him, not feel obligated to do it. Great.

 

“I just...” he continues without looking up. “I just wanted to ask if you were okay, and if you witnessed anything that night.”

 

Jefferson finally looks up, and Miles is staring at him in shock. “Did you see anything, Miles?” He says carefully, and Miles’ eyes go wide. 

 

“N-no. Of course not. Why would I have seen something?” He looks away.

 

“Miles,” he presses gently. “Any little thing could be important. You know that.”

 

“I  _ didn’t_,” he insists. “That night, I was just- upset because of something that happened in class. So I was taking a walk. And while I was outside, I started hearing rumors online about it, that’s  _ all_,” Miles finishes forcefully.

 

They sit in silence for a couple seconds while Jefferson debates how much he should push.

 

“Are you sure?” He ends up saying, somewhat stupidly. 

 

Miles shoots him a look that’s halfway to the regular annoyed look he has when Jefferson tries to reference a kid thing (and apparently messes it up), but he’s still too uncomfortable for it to land properly. “Yeah. Of course I’m sure.”

 

And then, without planning, the words are out before he knows it. “Then why do you always tense up these days when people mention Spider-Man?”

 

Miles’ mouth falls open. “I don’t- I don’t do that.”

 

“Yes, you do, Miles,” he argues. “And I’m just worried about you-”

 

“Then why aren’t you worrying about the whole city? Spider-Man, dying-” Miles has to ever so slightly force the word out, and Jefferson has no idea why Miles thinks he can’t _see_ that, “was a big deal for all of New York! There’s no reason to get on _me_ _specifically_ about it!”

 

Their voices are starting to raise in volume, and Jefferson spares a moment to wonder about what Rio must be thinking. “I am getting on you specifically because I think that something happened to you, specifically.” Miles opens his mouth and Jefferson talks faster. “You were so upset that night- you came in through the  _ window  _ for whatever reason- and I could feel you panting, like you’d run the whole way there, and after that the first words out of your mouth were about Spider-Man. And, since that night, you’ve frozen every time people brought him up in conversation. I’m concerned, Miles.” They’re both standing and Jefferson has no idea when it happened.

 

“It’s nothing-“

 

“There’s definitely something-“

 

“I just-“ Miles flings his arms out in exasperation, “I saw Spider-Man right before he died, that’s it!” he blurts out in a rush. Then his eyes widen for a second, like he regrets saying it.

 

Neither of them say anything for a second. “...you did?” Jefferson asks quietly.

 

“Y-yeah,” Miles says, looking away. Then his eyes snap back. “I wasn’t-“ he stammers, “I wasn’t, um,  _ there _ . Not, not down there. I wasn’t. I was just on the street walking around like thirty minutes before, and he went by me. And then an hour after that he was...dead.”

 

Jefferson nods, trying to encourage him to continue.

 

Miles looks away. “And it’s so dumb but I keep thinking about what if I’d done something. Anything. Because,” he takes a breath, “maybe if I’d done anything at all except for just  _ watch  _ him, even if I’d bothered him with something stupid, then maybe some small thing would have been different and he wouldn’t have died-“ Miles’ voice cracks.

 

Jefferson has never been good at the general comforting-people-with-words department, much less the comforting-your-son-that-he’s-not-distantly-responsible-for-the-death-of-a-superhero department- but Miles has shown before that Jefferson is still someone he can go to for it. So Jefferson hugs him and tries his best.

 

And Jefferson’s not going to try to push beyond this. It’s not the answer he expected, but there’s some ring of honesty in it that he can feel. The investigation is just going to have to do without the testimony of his thirteen-year-old son.

 

Rio’s standing in the doorway and has definitely heard at least the second half of this conversation, but that’s fine too. They’re going to work this out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> surprise! I’m alive
> 
> I kept getting comments from people who thought the identity reveal was going to happen in this chapter, and hahaha NO. This is an identity reveal slow burn to the MAX
> 
> I left some weird replies to people who were excited about “shit going down” in this chapter in an attempt to neither confirm nor deny the level of shit happening. I think I literally responded to someone with “yeet, in a manner of speaking”
> 
> Anyway! I was busy for the month because of Academic Decathlon stuff but that’s over now, and it paid off because we were 4th in the state and I got like 7 individual medals!! I have Time To Write Now, and I’m really excited for some stuff that’s coming up
> 
> anyway, peace out, and thank you to everyone who’s still reading


	8. Chapter 8

Okay! Okay. Miles had said that he would “figure it out soon” but apparently, fate has decreed that “soon” actually means “exactly right now”. Because he has to figure this out.  _ Exactly right now. _

 

First off in the whole pile of why-he-needs-to-figure-this-out-now reasons is the fact that his dad decided to have a whole conversation with him about what he might have witnessed with the old Spider-Man. And sure, only about 25% of that conversation was really about the police needing people to come forward, but the fact  _ was _ that it had been a part of the conversation at all. The investigation was running out of leads- which implied that they needed any and all people with the tickets to new ones to speak up.

 

Plus the fact that his dad had out of nowhere just  _ guessed  _ that he’d been near Spider-Man that night. That had given him actual heart attack. A quickly-constructed and emotionally-half-true lie had saved the day, but he...had still had no idea that he was being so obvious, which was a huge problem.

 

And yeah, on top of that, there was the fact that he’d lied to his dad about what he saw with Spider-Man. Had he just closed off all his options of coming forward as Miles with that lie? Because if he wanted to come forward as Miles now, he would have to admit that everything he’d said except maybe the guilt part had been a lie, and that would be...awkward. 

 

While he has to admit that opening up to his parents with (a version of) the truth has been kind of heartwarming and nice, it’s also a whole other story he has to keep straight. And then, he’s so distracted the next day trying to process everything that happened that at some point, while clearing out old photos from his phone, he deletes a picture of an assignment he still needs to do by complete accident. And he goes into the “Recently Deleted” folder because he knows how the photo app works, thank you, and-

 

And.

 

_ The video is right there. _

 

The video.  _ The  _ video. The entire freaking video that he took while in the collider, the one that he deleted in the middle of the night and just  _ assumed  _ was gone for good because he- because he doesn’t know. He wasn’t thinking. The one that he was kind of relieved he didn’t have anymore because it meant it wasn’t his immediate responsibility to get involved in the investigation.  _ That _ video.

 

No, Miles doesn’t have to decide what he wants to do right now just because of a talk with his dad. He has to decide what he wants to do right now because he has actual physical evidence in his hands that could link Spider-Man’s death to Fisk.

 

And- oh god-  _ because the video’s not 30 seconds long _ , which is the length of time that Miles actually remembers purposefully filming for. It’s nearly ten minutes long. There’s a blank in Miles’ memory around then- he just remembers that one moment he was taking a video, and then he wasn’t holding up the phone anymore the next. Maybe in the heat of the moment he’d just shoved it into his pocket without remembering to hit the  _ stop  _ button.

 

He doesn’t know! This entire situation is weird and high-stakes and confusing! And- and ten minutes is a long time. Even in his pocket, what the  _ hell  _ did it pick up?

 

He forces himself to calm down. He needs to think rationally about this.

 

If he was cool and responsible and rational, he’d come forward instantly to help the investigation, just like the old Spider-Man who- like he would have done.

 

But he’s been avoiding this topic for about as long as he’s been Spider-Man, and the idea of coming forward and probably having to talk in-depth about what happened is scary. Coming forward about it as Spider-Man (since yeah he’s not doing it as Miles) and opening himself up to all kinds of interactions and opinions and comparisons is scary. The ideas of not being able to yeet himself away from a conversation he doesn’t like, of having to be Spider-Man around his dad so often, of having to find the excuses and straight-up time to take part in an entire investigation or trial as Spider-Man, are all- really scary.

 

And now is right around the time when he was just starting to get less scared about day-to-day Spider-Man stuff. He’s about 75% sure that the old Spider-Man never had to deal with this.

 

It’s about four or so and he has a ton of homework, but it’s whatever because this revelation has been a wrecking ball to his entire day. After a small period of deliberation, he decides to go to talk to Peter’s aunt for advice.

 

He makes sure to turn invisible a while before he gets there (no reason to broadcast that May Parker knows the new Spider-Man if they can help it) and after he lands in her backyard, he’s extra careful to not step on any of her plants. He turns visible again and knocks, and in a few minutes he’s sitting at her kitchen table with an astonishingly quickly-made cup of tea.

 

“So,” Mrs- Parker? Mrs. May? says in a measured voice after he stumbles through an explanation. “You’re conflicted because you feel a responsibility to try to help with the investigation, but you know that doing so will be difficult.” Her voice clearly has emotion underlying it, but it’s steady.

 

“Um, yeah,” Miles says, and then winces because that answer just by itself sounds so bad. He’s bouncing one of his legs under the table and he forces himself to stop. “Though, um- I’m pretty sure the majority of it is just audio. I put it in my pocket.”

 

Mrs. Parker pauses for a moment, stirring her own tea, before opening her mouth to say something else. Miles’ heart leaps into his throat and he rushes to say something first.

 

“Do you want me to do it? Because if you want me to, I will.”

 

It’s not a lie. Sure, he’s made a big deal of stalling about this so far, but he’s talking to Mrs. Parker for advice and he was her  _ son _ . Her feelings are more important than his- if she wants him to come forward, then he’ll shut up and go talk to the police right now.

 

He’s about to tell her this when she cuts him off. “Oh,  _ no _ . No, Miles.” She reaches across the table and touches his arm, and fixes him with a look of that he doesn’t really know what to do with. “Do I want people to know what Fisk did? Yes. But you’re barely a teenager in a situation that most adults couldn’t handle- you get precedence here _. _ ”

 

Miles blinks. That runs immediately and completely counter to what he was just thinking, he thinks, but okay. He looks away, drumming his fingers haphazardly on the table. “But I-“ he swallows. “But I  _ should _ , right? Like I’m scared yeah, but Spider-Man isn’t supposed to be scared-”

 

Mrs. Parker leans forward and looks him directly in the eye. “Miles, you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do. There’s no rule book for what Spider-Man should be like-  _ you’re _ Spider-Man now, so you get to decide that. You’re so young right now, younger than Peter was when he started, and he never dealt with something like this until...” she trails off and shakes her head. “What I mean is that you have a choice, Miles. Doing this would be very hard for anyone, and it’s completely understandable to be intimidated.”

 

Looking at her, something quietly releases inside him and he exhales. He looks down. “Yeah,” he says quietly. “I came to talk to you because I was really freaked out when I realized I still had the video. It just feels like there’s so much I could mess up with this.”

 

Mrs. Parker just nods. “The media is a very difficult thing to handle, especially on top of having to participate in a trial. There’s no reason why you  _ would  _ feel prepared for it at this age.” She smiles wryly. “Peter was never involved with an investigation as Spider-Man until he was eighteen, and he wasn’t prepared either.”

 

Miles nods back. He almost goes to open his mouth to ask something, but he’s not sure if he should and the thought stalls him.

 

“And of course, I’ll help you with anything you need for the trial. Any questions or advice you want,” she continues.

 

Oh thank god.

 

“Yeah,” Miles says. He hesitates before opening his mouth again. “The whole deal honestly kinda terrifies me, but I just sort of feel like- it was so scary for me to just  _ see _ what happened. It was probably even scarier for him since he actually…” he looks away. “Died.”

 

They’re both silent for a moment. Miles swallows.

 

“I kind of want people to know how he died, I guess. He deserves that,” he finishes quietly.

 

Mrs. Parker nods, finishing the last of her tea. Miles, meanwhile, hasn’t even gotten a quarter of the way through and it’s probably cold now. Figures.

 

Even without a murder charge, everyone knows that Fisk’s going to jail. Multiple scientists have confessed to exactly what they were doing and what the project was risking, so Fisk is guaranteed a conviction for public endangerment. At this point, the video on Miles’ phone isn’t about Fisk; it’s about the old Spider-Man. It’s about Peter.

 

He takes a deep breath and looks at Mrs. Parker, and he can tell she already knows what he’s about to ask.

  
  


———————

  
  
  


The room is silent when he walks in, which is...decidedly abnormal. It’s not a calm silence either, not a coincidental moment of relaxation where everyone happens to not be talking; everyone is looking very strongly like they’re  _ trying  _ to be quiet.

 

After a moment he shakes himself and gives himself a mental push to go do what he originally came here for- which is give Detective Joyce the reports on what they found, from the couple claimers that they actually managed to get search warrants for. The moment he reaches her she wheels around, tense, and Jefferson discards everything he was about to say down the gutter.

 

“Alright, what’s going on?” He demands. Joyce looks around and then just purses her lips before pulling him off to the side.

 

If the silence hadn’t tipped him off, then this strange tension and secrecy definitely would have. She leans forward and says in a hushed voice, “A few minutes ago, May Parker sent me an email saying that she’d found a person who witnessed Spider-Man’s death. And that she would be sending them here.”

 

Damn. Without planning on it, he shakes his head in wonder- where exactly has this impossible witness been hiding? And this would  _ more  _ than explain everyone's’ behavior, except-

 

“But isn’t that good news?” he questions. Joyce is still tense, and she’s not looking at him; for some reason, she has her head angled to look out the window. “This is what we’ve been searching for for weeks.”

 

“It is,” she says. “Except that no one has walked in the front door, and…” she hesitates. “The new Spider-Man is outside.”

 

Jefferson freezes. And it’s such a rookie move but without a second thought he turns to look, searching for the trademark red and blue. He doesn’t find it, and he’s not sure whether that’s better or worse.

 

He’d thought that everyone in the room had been quiet just because they were trying to be. But looking out at them now, he realizes that the silence isn’t the end goal, just a side effect; they want to pay attention to what’s happening but are trying to be discreet about it.

 

“He first showed up about ten minutes ago. He keeps approaching and walking away again, like he’s nervous,” Joyce says. “We’re trying to make a plan on what to do, because he clearly wants something but it’s not like we can just chase him down.”

 

Jefferson pinches the bridge of his nose. “And you’re sure that Spider-Man is the person Mrs. Parker was talking about? We were never on the best terms with the old one, so for him to just show up out of nowhere…” he trails off.

 

Joyce shrugs. “It’s more likely than him showing up right now for a completely different reason.” She goes silent for a moment, crossing her arms, and sighs. “Earlier, I tried to open the window to talk to him while he was close by, but he just ran off again. So now we’re all acting normal until he feels comfortable enough to try again.”

 

Jefferson nods, and they both stand in silence for a moment. Finally he says, “Well then, if we’re all acting normally then there’s no reason for me to just stand here. I have the reports on what was recovered from the different claimers here, so I’ll just drop them off and go.” He pulls the file of reports out from under his arm- like they really need these anymore, if  _ Spider-Man  _ is a witness. “Tell me when he starts talking, alright?”

 

She nods in assent. “Yeah. Hopefully he’ll work up the nerve soon. You can just leave the reports on my desk,” she says, gesturing in its general direction.

 

He heads over to it casually, but since Joyce’s desk happens to be closer to the windows than where they were standing, he firmly reminds himself to not glance out of it. No sense in scaring the kid away if he genuinely knows what happened to Peter Parker, after all. He sets the folder down without incident and turns to go, and-

 

And all of a sudden there’s a blur of motion behind him and a soft  _ thunk _ as someone lands on the wall and sticks. Every head in the room flies up and stares at the figure in an instant- so much for acting normal.

 

Because absolutely, unquestionably, even in the just-starting-to-get-dim light, the person on the window is Spider-Man.

 

A few seconds pass where no one really makes a move, until Spider-Man knocks gently on the glass. In the most awkward maneuver of his life, Jefferson ends up walking over to open the window next to Spider-Man.

 

He pokes his head in once Jefferson’s done. “Um, so. Hi.”

 

A scattered, delayed “Hello” goes around the room in return. Jefferson stays where he is for lack of a better option, while Joyce pads up beside him slowly as if she doesn’t want to startle Spider-Man. It feels like there should be something vaguely ironic in that, in not wanting to startle the  _ superhero _ , except.

 

Somehow, the new Spider-Man seems awfully small crouched on that glass. 

 

“Did you get the email from May Parker?” Spider-Man says, breaking the silence. He has his head tilted Jefferson’s way, and for a second Jefferson gets the unnerving feeling that Spider-Man is talking directly at him, despite the fact that there’s no reason he should.

 

“Yes,” Joyce says in response, and only then does Spider-Man’s head turn.

 

“Okay, that’s good,” he says, then pauses. Jefferson’s not even joking when he says that the entire room waits with bated breath. “So um, you know why I’m...here?”

 

Joyce nods quickly. “Yes. And thank you for coming forward, we had practically nothing on this case as it stood. This is... _ very _ much appreciated.” At her words, Spider-Man relaxes minutely.

 

“Yeah. I’ll try to help you as much as possible, even if I won’t always be able to be here,” Spider-Man says. And of course he won’t always be able to be here- he’s a teenager, with presumably an entire normal life happening. He probably has family and friends who have no idea that he’s here right now, wearing a spider-themed getup and talking to the police.

 

Not for the first time, Jefferson feels a spike of concern for the kid under the Spider-Man mask. The old Spider-Man was one thing- he made the starting decision on his own, and after he became an adult he theoretically had the power to decide what he wanted even if that entailed actions which were a gray area legally, and which eventually led to his death.

 

But the new Spider-Man is definitely a kid, much younger than the original Spider-Man was even when he first started out. And he’s not necessarily making the decision on his own; he’s following someone else’s precedent.

 

_ What drove you to do this?  _ Jefferson wonders.

 

“We’ll work with your schedule,” Joyce assures him. “We’re going to need to get a witness statement from you about what happened, whether you want to do that now or at a later date. We’ll walk you through the procedure.” 

 

Spider-Man nods. “I think I can do it now, but I might not be able to stay past an hour or two.”

 

“That works,” she says, and starts to dig around for the necessary paperwork in the cabinets. After a moment she pauses and turns back around. “You can uh, come in, you know.”

 

Spider-Man quickly scrambles in through the open window, a mostly normal movement with just a touch more grace than you would expect. He stands fidgeting on the carpet, as if he feels about as out of place as he looks.

 

Joyce finally gets the paperwork and snags a pen, and everyone scoots out of her way as she walks back towards Spider-Man while shamelessly watching the entire interaction. Spider-Man is still fidgeting, and a bit before she reaches him he suddenly speaks.

 

“Maybe I should have opened with this first but I think I might have also gotten a video recording of what happened,” he blurts out in one breath.

 

Joyce drops what she’s holding.

  
  
  
  


 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> surprise i’m alive
> 
> I have like. No real excuse. I could talk about being busy, but I’m kind of always busy (lol I’m on that grind 🤪) so that’s sort of moot. I’m pretty sure this is the longest chapter I’ve ever posted though, if that counts for something...?
> 
> Me, crying while writing this: how does police stuff work
> 
> I’m aware that updating has been patchy the last couple of chapters and probably half of you aren’t here anymore...but like. I’ve gotten some really nice comments in the past from people who believed in the quality of this fic a lot more than I sometimes did. So!! If y’all’re still around then comments would make me really happy 
> 
> it’s been 2 months and i still haven’t seen the little funky dude spider, and my sister still calls me a coward. And actually- randomly, my sister is also active in this fandom on ao3. She’s actually also written a Spiderverse fic, one that is wayyy more popular than mine. I want to see if anyone can guess who she is.
> 
> First person to guess gets uhhhh something good day good night and peace out


End file.
